"Near Fort Charlotte there is a quarry of very hard sandstone breccia, in which vast numbers of large water-worn nodules of red granite, some of them (as remarked by the quarriers) most exactly resembling the common round Dutch cheeses, are compactly imbedded. About half a mile south from Lerwick, below a projecting eminence called the Knab*, at the entrance of Bassay Sound, several thick strata of sandstone have been exposed to view by the action of the sea. Imbedded in the upper strata of this sandstone, I observed a few scattered nodules of the same kind of granite. The lower strata are whiter, and are freestone, (i. e. may be hewn in any direction,) and are therefore quarried for the new buildings in Lerwick. On the grassy banks of the Knab, Scilla vera (vernal squill) grows in profusion. At this time I gathered some of the ripe seeds, which have since vegetated in one of the stoves of the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh. I also brought home some of the bulbs, which have grown freely. (April, 1805.) The vernal squill is considered as rather a rare plant in Scotland.

"The hills around Lerwick have a gloomy look, being but thinly clad with stunted heath, and many naked rocks appearing. The soil is a wet peat-turf, unfavourable to the vegetation of the better kinds of grasses, and yielding only few of the coarser sorts, (such as nardus stricta and festuca vivipara) mixed with carices and dwarfish rushes. There are two chalybeate springs in the neighbourhood of

the town; one somewhat stronger than the other, but neither highly impregnated.

"At Lerwick there is a straw. plaiting manufactory, but not on so extensive a scale as that at Kirkwall. When we visited it, more than fifty girls were at work, in two rooms, which however, were rather crowded. They receive 1d. per yard, and can make, as we are told by the manager, from 12 to 16 or even 20 yards a day. This manufactory is carried on by a London company. Before its introduction, there was no kind of manufacture in Lerwick, in which young women could advantageously exert their industry; the knitting of stockings being only a waste of time.

"Mackerel were at this time very common at Lerwick, and were sold very cheap. Eggs were brought aboard to us in Lerwick Roads, at 2d. a dozen; but they were very small, even the poultry partaking of the diminutive size of all the domestic animals of Shetland.

At Lerwick, and indeed throughout Shetland, Dutch and Danish coins are more common than British. A stuer, or stiver, (a small piece of base metal silvered over,) passes in circulation for one penny; the Danish 6-skilling passes for 5d. &c.

"Aug. 27.-We visited Brassay island, which lies immediately over against Lerwick. All along the western shore of this island, seabect (beta maritima) grows natu rally in great plenty; together with Danish scurvy-grass (coch learia Danica.) Intermixed with. these we observed many strong

stems of wheat and of white oats, which had sprung from seeds accidentally cast ashore. In a gentleman's garden here too, we observed that several shewy annuals had reached perfection in the open border, particularly convolvulus tricolor (coloured bindweed) and crepis rubra (red hawkweed). Jasione montana and scilla verna are very common natives of this island. Near the church of Brassay are situated the quarries which supply the town of Lerwick with slates. These quarries consist of beds of laminar micaceous schistus. Such slates may make a very secure roof; but it must also of necessity be a ponderous one. Great quantities of black compact peats are dug from the mosses of Brassay, and sold

to the inhabitants of Lerwick.

"This island forms the eastern protection of Brassay Sound, the safe and commodious harbour or roadstead of Lerwick, where, it is believed, the whole British navy might ride in safety. Brassay Sound is the resort, in time of peace, of several hundred Dutch busses, which annually rendezvous here at the beginning of June, preparatory to the herring-fishery.

"On the 28th of August we left Brassay Sound, in a large open boat, for Unst, the most northernly of the Shetland islands. In passing out by the north en

trance of the sound, the site of the Unicorn rock was pointed out to us; but it was at this time covered by the sea. When Bothwell was driven to extremities, he, as is well known, commenced pirate. Kirkaldy of Grange was sent in pursuit of him, in a vessel called the Unicorn. While Kirkaldy entered Brassay Sound by the south, Bothwell narrowly escaped by sailing out at the north entrance. Bothwell's pilots, it is said, had the cunning to sail very close by a sunk rock, with which they were fami liar; thus leading their pursuers, who, in the hurry of the chase, would naturally follow their track, to a hazard which actually proved fatal to them, and which ensured the escape of the unhappy fugitive. Since that day, this rock has re ceived the name of the Unicorn. This tradition is uniform and general, and may, I believe, be depended on.

"While we scudded along with a favourable breeze, our boat's crew amused themselves with catching mackerel, which swim faster than any other small fish, and may therefore be caught while a vessel is running at the rate of seven or eight knots (or miles) an hour*. A pretty heavy weight is in such circumstances required to sink the lines to a proper depth. The bait at first employed on this occasion,

was

was a bit of red woollen cloth! after which the heart of the mackerel itself was preferred.

"In the middle of the day we landed at Gossaburgh, in the island of Yell, and had some of our new. caught mackerel prepared for dinner. The fields here were so small in dimensions, that they appeared to us like little garden patches. Instead of a plough, a coarse kind of awkward spade is employed. As the men dig the fields with this spade; the women and children, we are told, drag the harrows!As in Orkney, so in Shetland, only the grey and black oat is cultivated; and it is here mixed with a good deal of the wild oat with hygrometric awns, (avena fatua.) The white oat of the south is scarcely known. Bear, or bigg, is also raised herein considerable quantity. We saw some promising lazy-bed potatoes; rather, however, too closely planted. During our short stay at this spot, I made a hurried visit to a heathy eminence in the neighbourhood. The ground was very wet and boggy, which, I believe, is the case with a great proportion of the pasture-ground of Yeil. Most of the little pools shewed a scum of the oxide of iron; and bog-iron ore, of different degrees of consistence, is here a common production. Narthecium ossifragum (bastard asphodel); Pinguicula vulgaris (butterwort or sheep-rot); and Pedicularis palustris (marsh lousewort), were indeed too common. Melica cærulea (purple me. lic); Nardus stricta (heath mat weed); and Festuca vivipara (viviparous sheep's-fescue), were the principal grasses; together with carices recurva, distans, panicea, &c. and some junci or rushes. To a mixture of all these, when heath is absent, the natives give the name

of lubba. The water-worn stones og the shore were chiefly of micaceous schistus, sometimes with the remains of small garnets with asbes tus, serpentine, &c.

"We reached Uyea Sound, in the island of Unst, early in the evening. Most of the rocks in this district of Unst are of the magnesian kind. The serpentine is finely variegated;" and its fresh fracture possesses such lustre, that the inhabitants call it jasper. The exterior of the rocks, however, is of a dull rusty hue, being altered or partly decomposed by the action of the weather. Pieces of pure white steatite are frequently found on the shore: these, I be lieve, the people call clemmil, and employ for drawing white lines on cloth or wood. Chlorite, imbedded in large masses of quartz, is also very common on the shore. A little way east from Uyea, great rocks of micaceous schistus appear, which are sometimes quarried for building, especially for lintel stones. Here a rude pillar of this schistus, rising about twelve feet from the ground, has, in former days, been erected, probably as a land-mark to vessels entering the harbour or road-stead of Uyea. In this remote and dreary country, we were somewhat surprised to find several handsome modern houses, with small gardens, gravel-walks, &c. in a neat style. The principal of these is Belmont, the seat of Mr. Mowat, of Garth.

"The remote situation of the Shetland Islands, and the little intercourse they have, especially du ring winter, with the mother country, frequently render the inhabitants strangers for many weeks to the greatest national occurrences. It has often been alleged, that the Revolution in 1688 was not known in Shetland for six months after it happened

happened. Thus Brand (Descrip. tion of Zetland, 1701) says: The late Revolution, when his highness the prince of Orange, our present king, was pleased to come over to assert our liberties, and deliver us from our fears, falling out in the winter, it was May thereafter before they heard any thing of it in Zetland; and that first, they say, from a fisherman, whom some would have had arraigned before them, and impeached of high treason because of his news.' And to the same purpose Martin (Appendix to History of the Isles, 1703), copying and improving upon Brand, says: The Shetlanders had no account of the prince of Orange's late landing in England, coronation, &c. until a fisherman happened to land in these isles in May following; and he was not believed, but indicted for high treason for spreading such news.' But from an old letter in possession of Mr. Mowat, of Garth, it is proved, that this common report is without foundation, or at least is greatly exaggerated: for it hence appears, that before the 15th of December, 1688, the report of the prince of Orange's landing in England had accidentally reached Unst, the most northerly of the islands, though the fact of a Revolution having been effected, was not, probably, as ertained for some considerable time after. Having, with Mr. Mowat's permission, copied part of this letter, I shall give the exact words: • 15th December, 1688.-I can give no account of news, save only that the skipper of the wreckt ship confirms the former report of the prince of Orange his landing in England with an considerable number of men, bot upon what pretence I cannot condishend.' (Signed) 'And. Mowat.' (Addressed) To

the much honoured George Cheyne off Eslamonth. The prince landed at Torbay on the 5th of November, 1688.

"In the kitchen-gardens here, an uncommon kind of artichoke is cultivated. It has numerous but very small heads, scarcely larger than those of the common spear. thistle. The inhabitants think it more hardy than the large-headed kind, and also superior in flavour.

"In the neighbourhood of Belmont I had an opportunity of viewing a Shetland water-mill. It was truly an awkward piece of machinery. The wheel (a very trifling one) was placed horizontally instead of vertically; consequently it could do but little work. The mill-stone was of micaceous schis

tus.

"The gables of the cottages here, were at this season hung round with hundreds of small coal, fish, called piltocks, strung upon spis, and exposed to dry, without salt. The fishes dried in this manner are called scrae-fish.

"Never was I more surprised or shocked than to learn that there was no school in the whole island of Unst! The instruction of hundreds of children is thus in a great measure neglected; many of the parents being utterly incapable of communicating even the knowledge of alphabetic letters to their offspring. That an island of above twenty miles in circumference, and containing above 2000 inhabitants, should be destitute of a parcchial school, is to me an inexplicable circumstance.

"Upon careful enquiry we learned that the Norwegian language is now finally extinct in Unst, where it subsisted longer than in any of the other islands: for we were repeatedly assured, that no

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